By James Streeter

It was a full weekend of wrestling for the Cedar Springs Youth Wrestling program as traveled to Caledonia High School this past Saturday to compete in a state tournament qualifying team meet and a number of individual tournaments on Sunday. 

On Saturday the Red Hawks took first place in the team tournament and in doing so qualified for the team state tournament in March. A number of wrestlers traveled to various individual tournaments including Caledonia, Lakeview, and the MyWAY Central GREIGHTS.  Coach Streeter was impressed and stated that “Many of our wrestlers pulled double duty having wrestled on both Saturday and Sunday with some of them wrestling upwards of 10 matches total. All of our wrestlers showed a lot of resilience this weekend.”

The Red Hawks faced stiff competition at Caledonia High School on Saturday morning as they competed in a qualifying tournament for team state. Cedar started things out in pool A, where they defeated Lawton 45-29, Caledonia 60-21, and finally Barry County Grapplers 44-21. After winning their pool they moved into the first place match up with Thornapple Kellogg. To account for a mismatch later in the match, the Red Hawks had to bump every wrestler on the team up one full weight class. This coupled with some gritty wrestling was enough to earn Cedar the victory 36-28! Brycen Alber was given the award as the meet’s outstanding wrestler. His undefeated record for the day helped the Red Hawks start off on the right foot each match.

Two wrestlers made the trip back to Caledonia on Sunday for individual action. John Elam took first in the 2007-2008 age group 80lb bracket, while his brother Elijah earned a 4th place finish in the 2009-2010 age group 54/57lb bracket.

The Pike brothers, Deegan and Dawson, made the trip to the Central Region Greights tournament and faced stiff competition from across the state. Deegan came away with a 3rd place finish in the 2007-2008 80lb bracket and earned himself another piece of the Greights Medal Map.

The majority of the Red Hawks traveled north to Lakeview High School for some MyWAY North Region action. Getting things started for the Hawks was a 2nd place finish by Henry Galinis in the 2013-2015 age group 55lb bracket.

In the 2011-2012 age group, some familiar faces earned hardware as Brycen Alber took first in the 49lb bracket;  Sierra Streeter took 2nd in the 52lb bracket; and a pair of Red Hawks medaled in the 58lb bracket as Hudson Cassiday took 2nd and Karsen Roelofs took 3rd. Dillon VanDyke had an excellent weekend placing first in the 67lb bracket as his team mate, Carson Dunham, also managed a 3rd place finish in the bracket. Emily VanGessel rounded out the action with a 4th place finish in the 82lb bracket.

The 2009/2010 age group saw five Red Hawks medal with Eli Gunderson taking first and Nahaar Nicholls taking 3rd in the combined bracket of 54/57lbs. Bryson Streeter brought home a 2nd place medal in the 60lb bracket and Tucker Crystal wrestled his way to a first place finish in the 72lb bracket. Sophia Nicholls wrestled her way to a 3rd place finish in the 95lb weight class.

Beau Savage continued his winning ways in the 2007-2008 age group as he took 2nd place in the 133lb weight class.

This week the youth grapplers will travel to Ferris State for the Bulldog Brawl and Davenport University for the Meijer State Games! Hope to see you out there!

WMP wrestler Luke Egan in his #RickerStrong singlet.  Luke took home a Championship for Brison and Preston Ricker last weekend.

WMP finish in top four

West Michigan Pursuit traveled to Central Montcalm and Orchardview this past weekend. The Swarm of Central Montcalm hosted a 50/50 raffle to benefit the Ricker family. The raffle raised a total of $1,300 to donate to the Rickers. WMP and Cedar Springs Wrestling have also been busy selling Wrestling for a Cause t-shirts to help benefit the Rickers. Saranac Youth Wrestling also donated $150 towards this wonderful cause.

WMP had 20 grapplers enter to compete and 16 finish in the top four. 59 lb, Mason Hendrick, 9/10 age group took 4th Place. In third place was 170/195 lb Aidan Dowdell, 13/14 age group; 72 lb Tyler Parmeter, 7/8 age group; and 158 lb Maston Wood, 11/12 age group. In second place was 61 lb Quinten Cassiday, 7/8 age group; and 52 lb Kaleb Pautke, 7/8 age group.

Champions of the day were 70 lb Carter Castillo, 7/8 age group; 67 lb Chayson Eberspeaker 7/8 age group; 67 lb Luke Egan, 9/10 age group; 59 lb Landon Foss, 9/10 age group (Orchardview); 64 lb Drew Moro, 7/8 age group; 80 lb Blake Peasley, 9/10 age group; 75 lb Isaiah Sostenes, 9/10 age group; 59 lb Josh Vasquez, 9/10 age group; 55 lb Kellen Weckesser, 7/8 age group and 49 lb Blake Werkema, 4/6 age group.

“When you are in the sport for so long, you have your ‘wrestling family’ on the weekends. Support for this family has been coming from several other wrestling programs. It makes me proud to be a part such an amazing group of caring people,” said Head Coach Dave Andrus.

The Cedar Springs wrestling team moved into sole possession of second place in the OK Bronze with a victory over homestanding Northview. Cedar took a big early lead in the upper weights beginning with a void at 171, followed by pins at 189 and 215 by juniors Austin Wamser and Teddy Edwards who both recorded their 20th victories. Northview voided to Partick DePiazza at heavyweight. When the match shifted back to the lightweights, freshman Jordan Ringler pinned in 36 seconds to run the lead to 30-0, but Northview stormed back with five straight wins of their own including a 6-5 win at 135 to make the score 30-25.

In a wild back and forth match at 140, sophomore Anthony Topolski pulled out a 26-15 win to earn four team points to push the lead to 34-25. At 145 Mike Smith quickly recorded a first period pin to make the lead an insurmountable 40-25. Cedar Springs voided at 152 but moved senior Jarrod Vodry up to 160 where he recorded the 100th win of his career with a pin. Final score 46-31 in favor of the Red Hawks.

An interesting twist to the match was provided by the rival coaches being former teammates, which increased the intensity of the match. Cedar coach Nick Emery and Northview coach Eric Fransen both were Red Hawk wrestlers from 1998-2001, and Fransen formerly was an assistant coach in the CS program.

With the win the Red Hawks secured second place in the OK Bronze needing wins against Forest Hills Eastern and Northern to earn the number two seed in the conference tournament.

Overall, the team dual record is 13-10 including a second place finish last weekend at the Pine River Invitational. Saturday 4 wrestlers placed at the Lakeview Individual Tournament. Pat DePiazza placed fourth at heavyweight while both Jordan Ringler at 103 and senior Baron Lenardson at 125 placed third. Junior Teddy Edwards pulled out heartpounding overtime win to be tournament champion at 215 pounds.

Ringler is off to a fast start to his high school career with a team leading 23 wins followed by Edwards with 22 wins including 15 pins. State ranked Zack Wamser has piled up 19 wins while Lenardson has 18 including his 100th career victory.